David Tilson at the Citizenship and Immigration Committee

First of all, I want to say to all members of the committee, because I get the impression that you think members of the opposition don't care about Atlantic Canada.... I just want to tell you a bit about my personal background which will show that I do care about Atlantic Canada.

By way of some background, I did my undergraduate degree at the University of New Brunswick. I spent a number of years in Fredericton getting that degree. One of my staff here in Ottawa is a young woman from Moncton who just recently, this past Saturday, got married in Fredericton. My late wife was from Moncton, as well. My wife has relatives buried in Cape Breton. My daughter owns a summer home in Shediac, New Brunswick. My son is a graduate of Dalhousie University. Obviously, I have a number of relatives in New Brunswick. I care about New Brunswick, and I care about the rest of Atlantic Canada.

Having been on this committee for a number a years, I certainly recognize the need for greater immigration to Atlantic Canada. I think we need to spend more time on the many issues that are raised, particularly by the gentleman who is on TV now. He raised some interesting issues, and they're complicated issues.

We need to spend some time in the maritime provinces, in the Atlantic Canadian provinces, to go over the complicated issues of unemployment. Atlantic Canada has the highest unemployment in Canada. How will that affect immigrants coming to the maritime provinces? I think we need to meet some of the.... The Atlantic provinces have a great reputation, perhaps a better reputation than some of the other provinces, in welcoming, for example, Syrian refugees to Canada.

I'd like to hear the views of some of those refugees who have come to Atlantic Canada. Are they getting jobs? I would like to hear from people who have been resident in Atlantic Canada for some time and how new immigrants coming to Atlantic Canada will affect the jobs.

There are very complicated issues. We've heard some testimony already that shows there are problems particularly in the rural communities. Obviously, there is a need for, as my friend across the way mentioned, temporary workers. That's true, but I expect we also have a need for full-time employment.

I think the best thing—that's why the motion, Mr. Chairman—is that we spend some time going to Atlantic Canada. The clerk has already prepared a budget to go there. We've done that. There's still time to make these arrangements. Let's go to Atlantic Canada. Let's spend a little bit of overtime for these people and get our other business done here before we rise.

There's the study on immigration consultants that we're very close to concluding. Let's finish that. It has a huge impact across Canada on the whole immigration system, the problems that we have with immigration consultants. That report is very close to being finished, but if we keep going the way we are, it's not going to get finished before the summer. We may have to continue on in the fall.

There's the LGBTQ study. We've heard the testimony on this. I think we're very close to coming to an agreed-upon report. This needs to be done to protect the world's most vulnerable. We can't just let it lie. The Liberals are raising the pride flag on the Hill right now. Why don't we do something? Why don't we finish this study?

Of course the Atlantic study is important, and I think we need to go there, but these two issues speak for themselves. We should deal with these in the few days that are left before we rise for the summer.

There have been a number of motions that have been made, Mr. Chairman, which haven't been voted on. My friend from the New Democratic Party has made a motion. Michelle Rempel has made a motion. We haven't voted on those motions, the motions dealing with the border crossing crisis, the issue of illegal people coming to the United States and not following the rules that we have in this country for allowing—